Russia’s Lavrov dismisses Mueller indictments as lacking ‘facts’

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov dismissed allegations of Russia’s election meddling on Saturday following an indictment from Robert Mueller’s special counsel office targeting 13 Russian nationals for allegedly interfering in the election.

At an appearance at the Munich Security Conference, Lavrov dismissed the claims made in the indictment, arguing that until evidence was presented, Mueller’s summary means nothing.

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“I have no response. You can publish anything, and we see those indictments multiplying, the statements multiplying,” Lavrov said, according to The Associated Press.

“Until we see the facts, everything else is just blabber,” he added, with other translations describing Lavrov’s expression as “claptrap.”

Lavrov’s comments were rebuked moments later by President Trump’s national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, who took the same stage as Lavrov and answered questions from reporters.

“With the FBI indictment, the evidence is now incontrovertible” of Russia’s election meddling, McMaster said Saturday.

McMaster also shot down any chance of working with Russia on cybersecurity issues until the election meddling issue had been resolved.

“We would love to have a cyber dialogue when Russia is sincere about curtailing its sophisticated form of espionage,” McMaster told reporters.

Friday’s indictment in the Mueller probe targeted 13 Russian nationals and 3 organizations, accusing them of being part of a sophisticated effort to spread divisive information among Americans using fake social media accounts across multiple platforms.

The indictment specifically accused Russian entities, including the government-controlled Internet Research Agency “troll farm,” of “information warfare against the United States,” with the expressed goal of spreading “distrust towards the candidates and the political system in general.” 

“The indictment alleges that the Russian conspirators want to promote discord in the United States and undermine public confidence in democracy,” Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said Friday. “We must not allow them to succeed.”